Oslo Calling

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced yesterday that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 would be shared by Al Gore and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change

But the intrinsic assumption of that statement is that the theory of anthropogenic global warming has been proven and that evidence accrued in recent years has only bolstered the conclusion that man is causing global warming. In fact, the reverse has been true.
The attempted re-label – “climate change” – is in itself an admission by proponents of a weakness in the theory. But more substantively, problems have arisen in several components of the “evidence” to support the theory that the greenhouse gases generated by man are causing the planet’s temperature to rise.
Let’s back up and start with what we know:
> The Earth is warming. Since 1860 when man began putting all those icky fossil fuels into the air, the Earth’s average temperature has risen less than one degree centigrade. [Not per year. For that 147 year span.] > Man has been generating greenhouse gases. Responsibility for the generation of greenhouse gases is apportioned thusly: Mother Nature 94% ~ man 6%.
Now, the theory of AGW is that man, with the 6% of greenhouse gases he contributes, caused that rise in temperature. And AGW computer models predict that man’s 6% will cause a further rise of 4 to 7 degrees fahrenheit over the coming century, with the attendant melt of certain ice caps and the well publicized projected rise in sea levels.
“Houston, we have a …”
… several, actually.
> With the method of data collection; more specifically, the location of temperature sensor stations. Wish I could tell you more about this problem but

the NCDC removed all website access to station site locations, citing “privacy concerns.” Without this data (which had been public for years), the validation effort was blocked.

> With the computer models, the scientific crux of AGW. These models do not (because they cannot) factor in the impact, either way, of clouds on the global temperature. Even more scary, they do not “predict” observed conditions.
> With how high we think sea levels will go. Two of the darlings of AGW, Dr. James Hansen and the IPCC, disagree.
In short, it is clear that the case against man as the cause of global warming is seriously flawed. Further, the above list of flaws, by no means comprehensive, also demonstrates that a non-scientist can easily ascertain the existence of such weaknesses.
The Nobel Committee, then, could have done a modicum of their own research on AGW as a function of weighing the worthiness of all nominees. They did not do so. The result is not only damage to their own credibility but the further promotion of a far from proven theory for which draconian solutions are being proposed and even legislatively considered.

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Ken
Ken
17 years ago

Monique, To quote the Nobel Foundation Statement on 2007 Peace Prize and Washington Post in full per your link: “The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change” “Thousands of scientists and officials from over one hundred countries have collaborated to achieve greater certainty as to the scale of the warming. Whereas in the 1980s global warming seemed to be merely an interesting hypothesis, the 1990s produced firmer evidence in its support. In the last few years, the connections have become even clearer and the consequences still more apparent.” “Al Gore has for a long time been one of the world’s leading environmentalist politicians. He became aware at an early stage of the climatic challenges the world is facing. His strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change. He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted.” How do you relate “the NCDC removed all website access to station site locations, citing “privacy concerns.” This was accomplished in 2006 (go back and check article dates) under President George W. Bush watch and not former VP Al Gore who was no where in office? I think you should present your papers to the Nobel Foundation because you seem to be more qualified to speak than the “Thousands of scientists and officials from over one hundred countries have collaborated to achieve greater certainty as… Read more »

Tim
Tim
17 years ago

Al Gore and a UN group win a Nobel Peace prize for peddling a theory that many many many in the scientific community believes to be pure fiction. Jeez only thing funnier would be Yasser Arafat winning a …err nevermind.
Nobel has gone the way of so many other ‘game’ shows. Completely PC and totally irrelevant.
Al Gore? The UN? lol

michael
michael
17 years ago

Call me crazy but I always liked Al Gore, especially when he distanced himself from Clinton.

brassband
brassband
17 years ago

Depends on which Al Gore you liked, Michael . . . There were so many of him to chose from!
Did you like the pro-life Al Gore, or the pro-abortion Al Gore?
The tobacco farmer Gore, or the anti-tobacco Gore?
The “Bush 41 blew it by not bringing down Sadam” Gore, or the “Bush 43 blew it by invading Iraq” Gore?
So many options, kinda hard not to find at least one that you could like!

Barry
Barry
17 years ago

I suppose I should be glad that the extreme right wing (which to considerable extent has taken over the Republican party and is determined to obliterate its historic conservation orientation) discredits itself with most infomed people by global climate change denial. True conservatives should both favor conservation of resources in part so as to help combat climate change, and also be “prudent” – (as a one-time student of meteorology I know indeed how complicated the atmosphere and its feedback mechanisms can be) in the sense that it is better not to tqake a crapshoot with our atmsophere, the results of which can be even worse than predicted just as they may indeed be not as bad as predicted. But the right wing apparently rather just defend the short-term greed of the fossil fuel industry. But its too bad, climate change denial can help take down the Republican party, just as there is a need to build it up, at least locally, to combat the culture of corruption of the Democratic leaders here.

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